# How Knowledge Drives Economic Growth | César Hidalgo

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/oxford-policy-pod-1217253/how-knowledge-drives-economic-growth-c-sar-hidalgo
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/oxford-policy-pod-1217253/how-knowledge-drives-economic-growth-c-sar-hidalgo.md
Podcast: [Oxford Policy Pod](https://stenobird.com/podcast/oxford-policy-pod-1217253)
Published: 2026-04-03T08:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://oxfordpolicypod.captivate.fm/episode/how-knowledge-drives-economic-growth-cesar-hidalgo
Audio file: https://episodes.captivate.fm/episode/5c506422-1902-4054-adec-b47aa1687839.mp3
Processing state: not_requested
JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/oxford-policy-pod-1217253/episodes/how-knowledge-drives-economic-growth-c-sar-hidalgo
Duration seconds: 3238

## Resource

In this episode of the Oxford Policy Pod, MPP students Diego Peñaranda and Iván Lozano speak with Professor César Hidalgo, a physicist, complexity scientist, and one of the leading thinkers on knowledge and development. Professor Hidalgo is a tenured professor at the Toulouse School of Economics and leads the Center for Collective Learning. He is widely recognized for co-developing the Economic Complexity Index and for his research on how knowledge shapes growth. The conversation explores his intellectual journey from physics to economics, and his central idea that development depends on expanding what societies know how to do. Drawing on his latest book, The Infinite Alphabet , Hidalgo explains how knowledge grows, spreads, and is sometimes lost, and what this means for public policy. The episode also discusses how countries can build capabilities, the role of talent and networks, and the potential impact of artificial intelligence on knowledge and decision-making.

## Actions

- request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/oxford-policy-pod-1217253/episodes/how-knowledge-drives-economic-growth-c-sar-hidalgo/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.
- read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/oxford-policy-pod-1217253/how-knowledge-drives-economic-growth-c-sar-hidalgo.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.

A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed.

## Transcript

Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.